Elements of Ecology (7e)

Known for its emphasis on the relevance of ecology in everyday life and the human impact on ecosystems, Elements of Ecology, Seventh Edition features new “Interpreting Ecological Data” exercises to help students develop quantitative skills.

Each chapter draws upon current research in the various fields of ecology while providing accessible examples that help students understand species natural history, specific ecosystems, the process of science, and ecological patterns at both an evolutionary and demographic scale.

To engage students in using and interpreting data, a wide variety of Quantifying Ecology boxes walk through step-by-step examples of equations and statistical techniques. The expanded Companion Website (www.ecologyplace.com) includes GRAPHit!, and QUANTIFYit! exercises to help students further master and apply math skills.

1. The Nature of Ecology

I. THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

2. Climate

3. The Aquatic Environment

4. The Terrestrial Environment

II. THE ORGANISM AND ITS ENVIRONMENT 

5. Adaptation and Natural Selection

6. Plant Adaptations to the Environment

7. Animal Adaptations to the Environment

8. Life History Patterns

III. POPULATIONS

9. Properties of Populations

10. Population Growth

11. Intraspecific Population Regulation

12. Metapopulations

IV. SPECIES INTERACTIONS

13. Interspecific Competition

14. Predation

15. Parasitism and Mutualism

V. COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

16. Community Structure

17. Factors Influencing the Structure of Communities

18. Community Dynamics

19. Landscape Ecology

VI. ECOSYSTEM ECOLOGY

20. Ecosystem Energetics

21. Decomposition and Nutrient Cycling

22. Biogeochemical Cycles

VII. BIOGEOGRAPHICAL ECOLOGY

23. Terrestrial Ecosystems

24. Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems

25. Land-Water Margins

26. Large-scale Patterns of Biological Diversity

VIII. HUMAN ECOLOGY

27. Population Growth, Resource Use, and Sustainability

28. Habitat Loss, Biodiversity, and Conservation

29. Global Climate Change

• A substantially revised Chapter 1 emphasizes how ecologists study pattern and process across different levels in the hierarchy of ecological systems—from the individual organism to the biosphere.
• Interpreting Ecological Data exercises, have been added to selected figures to help students test their understanding of graphs and data and to consider different outcomes. Suggested answers are provided.
• Revised art program includes 70 new color photos.
• Additional and expanded coverage of topics throughout the text, including water balance in plants, density-dependent population regulation, allometry and animal metabolism, long-term dynamics of decomposition, role of the rhizosphere in decomposition and nutrient cycling, and the relationship between species diversity and ecosystem productivity.
• Research references have moved from the back of the book to the end of each chapter and emphasize how the text is based on real scientific studies. These Further Readings are annotated to explain their relevance to the student/instructor.
• A revised chapter on Adaptation and Evolution has moved from Chapter 2 to Chapter 5, to immediately precede chapters on plant and animal adaptations to the environment.

• Field Studies discuss ecological research performed by young up-and-coming scientists, and challenge students to interpret the results of the featured research.
• Quantifying Ecology boxes help students develop the quantitative skills they need to interpret ecological data, research, and models. Skills are reinforced by a set of follow-up questions and links to GRAPHit! and QUANTIFYit! on the Companion Website (www.ecologyplace.com).
• Ecological Issues essays describe how humans influence the study of ecology. For example, the short essay “The Ecology of Antibiotic Resistance” discusses how antibiotic resistance is a result of natural selection. Each essay is followed by a set of critical thinking questions.
• The Companion Website is integrated with the text and includes the interactive quantitative tools GRAPHit! and QUANTIFYit! as well as animations, quiz questions, flashcards, news and web links, Ecological Perspectives essays, and more. A subscription to the Companion Website is included with each new copy of the text.
• Engaging introductions give students a “big picture” overview of the coming chapters in each of the eight parts of the book, so they can understand how various topics interrelate.
• Revised study questions include more critical thinking exercises that engage students to make connections and apply their knowledge.
• Landscape Ecology chapter explores the role of disturbance in ecosystems.

Thomas M. Smith, Associate Professor in Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia, received his Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Tennessee in 1982. The main focus of his research over the past two decades has been to develop an individual based theory of community and ecosystems dynamics. As part of this work he has served on numerous national and international panels that have addressed the potential influence of human activities on the global environment. He has authored over 70 publications based on his research, and he has been recognized as one of the most cited scientists in the field of global change research.

Thomas’s work has taken him to over 70 countries and 6 continents. He has served on the faculty of the University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa), Australian National University (Canberra, Australia), as well as the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA, USA). In addition, he has held research scientist positions at both Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, TN, USA) and the Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Laxenburg, Austria). He has over 20 years of experience teaching the science of ecology to both science and non-science majors.

Robert L. Smith holds a Ph.D. in Wildlife Biology from Cornell University. He is Professor Emeritus of Ecology at West Virginia University. He has spent over 30 years teaching Ecology and conducting field research throughout the world. His teaching responsibilities have involved mostly undergraduate courses in general ecology and graduate courses in population ecology and wildlife management. His research has included forest-fire related problems in southern West Virginia, vegetational development and succession on abandoned and reclaimed surface mines, the relation between forest vegetational structure and the forest bird community, and forest habitat assessment and habitat evaluation procedures based on vegetational structure.

Smith has served as a consultant to congressional committees, workshops on environmental education and energy and environmental problems, the National Landmarks program of the U.S. Department of Interior, National Research Council Task Forces on wildlife and fisheries issues and ecological classification systems for implementing environmental quality evaluation procedures.